Bits and pieces of my life. I am a lifelong Christian. I have been married for over 39 years to Stan. No children. We have 3 Italian Greyhounds: Persephone, Dresden & Capodimonte and a calico cat named Binky. We have 9 nieces/nephews and 9 grandnieces/nephews whom we love. My hobbies are genealogy, reading, digital scrapbooking, history, dogs, homemaking. This is a personal blog and not a business. I share what interests me and I am not selling anything or making a profit.

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Thursday, October 20, 2016

Thriller Thursday is a daily blogging prompt used by many genealogy bloggers on Geneabloggers.com to help them post content on their sites. Are there murders, bizarre accidents or other thrilling stories among your family history? Tell us about them through words and pictures during Thriller Thursday.

Albert Matthew Ricker was born 3/1/1914 in Madison County, NC to William "Bill" Callaway Ricker (DOB Abt 1864 in Greene County, TN; DOD 1/1/1938 in Hot Springs, Madison County, NC) and Martha Hudson (DOB 9/13/1889 in NC; DOD 6/1975 in Marshall, Madison County, NC). They were married 2/27/1910 in Greene County, TN. Martha Hudson Ricker had 2 sons with Bill Ricker, Albert and John Ricker. She also had a son by unknown father, David Hudson.

Bill Callaway Ricker had been married first to Nan Roberts and they had 2 children: Bessie Susan Ricker and David Rover Ricker.

Nancy C. Roberts (aka Nan or Nannie) was born about 1859 in TN. Her parentage is vague but I will attempt to show what I have on her family. Her parents were James A. Roberts (DOB 1832-1835 in TN; DOD After 1870 in ? ) and Martha Lashly (DOB Abt 1835 in TN; DOD After 1860 in TN).

But this Martha McAlister is too young to have had the children. Her age is 21 yrs old (DOB 1849) so this can't be Martha Lashly Roberts. Evidently little Martha Roberts didn't survive to the next census. Who is the McAlister family to John Roberts and his children? Were the children just being boarded there? Did John marry Martha McAlister? I did find a Mattie S. Roberts (11/9/1848-7/1/1911) of the right age, buried at Cedar Hill Cemetery, Greeneville, Greene County, TN. Is this Martha McAlister? If so, that indicates they did marry. Who was Charles McAlister to James and the girls?

Nan Roberts' sister, Sarah Virginia Roberts, was born 10/1861 in TN. She married Jacob Robert Hickam (DOB Abt 1862 in Madison County, NC; DOD 2/4/1935 in Knoxville, Knox County, TN). They had 6 children: Laura Noda Hickam, George Cleveland Hickam, Ernest or Emory or Emert Stone Hickam, Hattie Jane Hickam, Cora Mae Hickam, and Daniel Robert Hickam. I couldn't find an exact date of death for Sarah Virginia Roberts Hickam although she was in the 1920 U.S. Census but her husband was living with their daughter Hattie Jane Hickam Goforth in the 1930 U.S. Census so she must have died between 1920-1930. There should be a death certificate but I didn't find one.

I'm afraid this is all I know about Nannie Roberts Ricker's early life and her family. There are still questions to be answered and if you have any further information or corrections, please contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.

The next record I find of her, she's married to William Calloway Ricker.

William Callaway Ricker and his brother, David Fleenor Ricker murdered their first cousins, Thomas Greely Jennings and Marshall Jennings in 1896.W.C. and D.F. Ricker and Hester Naulty are indicted for murder of two of the men's first cousins in 1896. That's basically all I know about that story. I don't know if they were convicted and served any time or not.

I could not find Nan Roberts Ricker in the 1900 U.S. Census. But I found William Ricker living in Asheville, Buncombe County, NC. He had married his 3rd wife, Hester Norton (DOB Abt 1874 in NC; DOD 1/27/1945 in Madison County, NC). Hester had already been married once before to James R. Naulty (or James R. Naulta) (1874-1/27/1945). Hester Naulty had a son named Benjamin Naulty in 1893 with him. She married Bill Ricker about 1896 according to the 1900 U.S. Census. This is the Hester Naulty Ricker indicted with the brothers for the murder of the men's cousins.

Spartanburg Herald Journal, Spartanburg, SC, Spartanburg Herald Journal, 2/21/1911, last page (back of main section)
Couple Are Extradited
Deputy Sheriff Comes From Tennessee To Take Back Man And Woman In JailDeputy Sheriff W.C. Ricker, of Greeneville, Greene Count. Tenn., arrived here yesterday with extradition papers for Luther Brazille, charged with larceny and Mrs. Hester Naulty, who is charged with criminal trespass. They have been in jail for some time, arrested by Sheriff White at the Spartan Mill village, where they had been living as man and wife.
Mrs. Naulty declared to a Herald reporter that a mistake had been made in the arrest of herself and Brazille. She said they came from North Carolina and were married, and she felt no fear as to the outcome of the case.

Hester remained with Luther Brazil the rest of her life while William Callaway Ricker married Martha Hudson (we will continue his story later). Hester and Luther had a son named Johnson Clois Brazille in 1917.

We began talking about Albert Ricker, so why did I get off on Bill Ricker and his wife, Nan Roberts? Because the next time I find Nan Roberts Ricker and her son, Dave Ricker, they are being sentenced to the penitentiary for killing a man named Waddell.

Asheville Citizens-Times, Asheville, Buncombe County, NC, 10/29/1902, Pg 4, "Woman And Boy Are Sentenced To Penitentiary"Marshall, N.C., Oct 29 - Superior court adjourned yesterday for the term and Judge Council left for home last night. The most important case disposed of this week was the case of State vs. Nan Ricker and Dave Ricker, charged with the murder of Waddell near Paint Rock last summer. The defendants were convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary, the woman for 18 years and the boy for ten years. Quite a number of misdemeanor cases were disposed of by jury trials and submissions.

Madison County Record, Marshall, Madison County, NC, 5/6/1905, Pg 4, "Notice Of Application For Pardon"
Notice is hereby given to the public that application will be made to the Governor of North Carolina for the pardon of Dave Ricker, who submitted guilty of murder in the second degree at the October term, 1902, of the Superior Court of Madison County.
Moore Rollins
Attorneys

The Morning Post, Raleigh, NC, 8/25/1905, Pg 5
Hon. T.S. Rollins Here
Came To Appeal To Governor
Glenn For A Pardon
Wants a 15 year old Boy Released From Pen-Says Industrial News Will Be Out Oct. 1st-Howard Banks and Associate Editorship
Hon. Thomas S. Rollins, chairman of the North Carolina Republican executive committee, arrived in the city yesterday afternoon and spent last evening in in conference with a number of prominent local Republicans, including Internal Revenue Collector E.C. Duncan and Postmaster C.T. Bailey. Judge Timberlake was also here from Louisburg.
However Chairman Rollins said that there is no political significance whatever in his presence at the state capital. And that he was here solely for the purpose of appearing before Governor Glenn in an effort to secure a pardon for a young white boy, Dave Ricker, who is serving a ten-year sentence for aiding and abetting his mother in the murder of a man in Madison County about four years ago. Ricker is fifteen years old and has served three years of the ten years' sentence.
It is claimed that the boy really took very little part in the killing for which the mother is serving a life sentence. A great number of the citizens of the county are interested in the case and have signed petitions to the governor urging that the pardon be granted. It is expected that Governor Glenn will return to the city of Roberson "home coming" today and on his arrival Mr. Rollins will lay the matter of the pardon before him.

Madison County Record, Marshall, Madison County, NC, 12/2/1910, Pg 5, "Application For Pardon"
Application For Pardon of Nannie Ricker
Application will be made to the Governor of North Carolina for the pardon of Nannie Ricker convicted at the Oct. Term of Superior Court of Madison County of the crime of manslaughter and sentenced to the penitentiary for a term of eighteen years.
All persons who oppose the granting of said pardon are invited to forward their protests to the Governor without delay.
This the 22nd, day of Nov. 1910,David Ricker

Nan Roberts Ricker died some time after 1940 U.S. Census. I would assume she died in Buncombe County, NC but I didn't find a record of her death. If you know any further information or have any corrections, please contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com.

To go back to William Callaway Ricker, he married Martha Hudson in 1910, after Hester Norton Naulty.

I don't know where David Hudson and John Ricker were in the 1930 U.S. Census. But they show up here with their mother in 1940.

1940 U.S. Census of Hot Springs, Madison County, North Carolina; Roll: T627_2939; Page: 10A; Enumeration District: 58-6, Family #183, Lines 20-23, "Martha Ricker"Martha Ricker, Head, Rented home for $4, F(emale), W(hite), 56 yrs old (DOB 1886), Widowed, Attended school thru 3rd grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935, Seamstress in sewing room, Income $225David Hudson, Son, M, W, 34 yrs old (DOB 1906), Single, Never attended school, Born in TN, Lived in the same place in 1935, Laborer on farmAlbert Ricker, Son, M, W, 26 yrs old (DOB 1914), Single, Attended school thru 7th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935, Truck driver for Retail Coal, $350 IncomeJohn Ricker, Son, M, W, 17 yrs old (DOB 1923), Single, Attends school, Attended school thru 7th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935, No occupation

U.S. World War II Army Enlistment Records, 1938-1946
Name Albert M Ricker
Birth Year 1916
Race White, citizen
Nativity State or Country North Carolina
State of Residence North Carolina
Enlistment Date 20 Jun 1942
Enlistment State South Carolina
Enlistment City Fort Jackson Columbia
Branch Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Branch Code Branch Immaterial - Warrant Officers, USA
Grade Private
Grade Code Private
Term of Enlistment Enlistment for the duration of the War or other emergency, plus six months, subject to the discretion of the President or otherwise according to law
Component Selectees (Enlisted Men)
Source Civil Life
Education 1 year of high school
Civil Occupation Salespersons
Marital Status Married
Height 71
Weight 162

1930 U.S. Census of Cotton Mill Hill, Marshall, Madison County, North Carolina; Roll: 1704; Page: 10B; Enumeration District: 0011; Image: 804.0; FHL microfilm: 2341438, Family 217, Lines 92-100, "Fred Colwell" (sic, Fred Caldwell)Fred Colwell, Head, Rented home for $4, M(ale), W(hite), 40 yrs old (DOB 1890), Married at age 25 yrs old, Can read and write, Born in NC, Both parents born in NC, Laborer for odd jobsTexie Colwell, Wife, M, W, 30 yrs old, Married at age 15 yrs old, Can read and write, Born in NC, Both parents born in NCPearl Colwell, Daughter, F, W, 6 yrs old (DOB 1924), Single, Born in NC, Both parents born in NCBlanche Colwell, Daughter, F, W, 0/12 mos old (DOB 1930), Born in NC, Both parents born in NCMollie Ramsey, Stepdaughter, F, W, 16 yrs old (DOB 1914), Single, Does not attend school, Can read and write, Born in NC, Both parents born in NC, Seamstress for garment factoryNevada Ramsey, Stepdaughter, F, W, 14 yrs old (DOB 1916), Single, Attends school, Born in NC, Both parents born in NCNina B. Ramsey, Stepdaughter, F, W, 12 yrs old (DOB 1918), Single, Attends school, Born in NC, Both parents born in NCEdith Ramsey, Stepdaughter, F, W, 10 yrs old (DOB 1920), Single, Attends school, Born in NC, Both parents born in NCDaisy L. Ramsey, Stepdaughter, F, W, 8 yrs old (DOB 1922), Single, Attends school, Born in NC, Both parents born in NC

1940 U.S. Census of Cotton Mill Hill, Marshall, Madison County, North Carolina; Roll: T627_2939; Page: 14A; Enumeration District: 58-10, Family #236, Lines 31-37, "Charlie Presley"Charlie Presley, Head, M(ale), W(hite), 36 yrs old (DOB 1904), Married, Attended school through 4th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935, Frame spinner in cotton mill, $300 IncomeLexie Presley, Wife, F, W, 39 yrs old (DOB 1901), Married, Attended school through 4th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935Edith Presley (sic), Stepdaughter, F, W, 20 yrs old (DOB 1920), Single, Attended school through 7th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935, Frame spinner in cotton mill, $180 IncomeDaisy Presley (sic), Stepdaughter, F, W, 18 yrs old (DOB 1922), Single, Attended school through 7th grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935Blanche Presley (sic), Stepdaughter, F, W, 10 yrs old (DOB 1930), Single, Does not attend school, Attended school thru 2nd grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935Floyd Presley Jr., Son, M, W, 8 yrs old (DOB 1932), Does not attend school, Attended school thru 1st grade, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935Helen Presley, Daughter, F, W, 5 yrs old (DOB 1935), Does not attend school, Born in NC, Lived in the same place in 1935

Albert Matthew Ricker and Daisy Lee Ramsey had two children during their marriages, Billy Ricker and Jerry Ricker.

We have set the stage for the murder. You know all about the family history that I could find. Now for the story.

Man Wounded, Wife Jailed
Ex-Beauty Queen Slain In MarshallMarshall - A pretty 19-year-old former mountain beauty queen was slain and the father of two children wounded in Sunday afternoon shooting on Marshall's main street.
Holiday customers in a Marshall drug store saw Miss Lorraine Rector shot in the mouth, slump to the floor and die shortly after Albert Ricker, about 38, was shot three times as he sat in his automobile about half a block away.
Madison County Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said Mrs. Albert Ricker, Ricker's 30-year-old wife, sobbing, surrendered to two Marshall policemen who had been across the street from the drug store when the tragedy occurred.
Ponder said Mrs. Ricker was being held in jail on a charge of murder. He said Miss Rector died shortly after she was truck by a .38 calibre pistol bullet. Ricker was reported in "fair" condition in an Asheville hospital with gunshot wounds in both arms and his right chest.
Ponder said Mrs. Ricker made no statement.
Sheriff Ponder said Mr. and Mrs. Ricker had been separated legally about two years.
The officer added Miss Rector and Ricker earlier had gone to the Brush Creek section where they had taken the Ricker's two sons, Billy and Jerry, home from Sunday School.
The sheriff said they stopped in Marshall, and the girl went to the drug store just before the shooting.
Policeman Fred McDevitt was on duty on a corner and Policeman Charles Rector - no relation to the dead girl - was sitting in front of the Madison County Courthouse, off duty, when they heard the shots pumped into the automobile. They said things happened so fast neither could reach the drug store in time to prevent the girl's dying.
Ponder said Miss Rector was struck by a bullet fired through the screen door of the drug store just as she was leaving.
Ponder said four fired shells and one cartridge that had been struck but had not fired were found in the five shot pistol.
The officers said Mrs. Ricker surrendered as the officers rushed up.Miss Rector, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Rector of Redman, was queen of the 1948 Asheville Tobacco Festival.Ricker, employed by the H.E. Ramsey Construction Co., recently returned from Morganton where he had been working for the firm. Mrs. Ricker is employed by Martel Mills of Elk Mountain.
(under photo) This section of Marshall's main street was the scene of yesterday's doubleshooting which took the life of 19-year-old Lorraine Rector. The girl was killed as she was leaving Robert's Pharmacy. Albert Ricker shortly before was shot three times as he sat in his auto. His car was parked in front of the Ramsey Department Store. Ricker's wife is held on a murder charges.

Wife Shoots Husband And Beauty QueenMarshall, N.C. - A jealous wife wounded her estranged husband with three pistol shots and then killed his beauty queen girlfriend, Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said today.Miss Lorraine Rector, 20, queen of the 1948 Asheville Tobacco Festival, was killed as she walked from a drug store yesterday afternoon.Albert Ricker was wounded as he sat about half a block away waiting for Miss Rector.Mrs. Albert Ricker, 30, mother of Ricker's two sons, surrendered to officers immediately after the shooting. Sheriff Ponder said the woman is in a "very nervous condition" was held in jail on a murder charge.
Ponder said he questioned Mrs. Ricker again today but that she continued to make no statement whatsoever concerning the shooting. However, the sheriff said jealousy "apparently was at the bottom of it".
He said Ricker and the pretty Miss Rector had been dating for about a year. Ricker and his wife had been legally separated for about two years, the sheriff said.
Ponder said Ricker told him he picked up his boys, Jerry and Bill, at church after Sunday School and drove them to the home of their mother.Ricker said he went to Miss Rector's home after and drove her into town. Seeing his wife on a street corner, Ricker said he then drove about the and out of town and turned around and came back.
He said he found a parking place about half a block from the drug store and Miss Rector went in for a soft drink and a pint of ice cream.Ricker said he was sitting in the car reading a paper when his wife stepped up to the front window. "She said something, I don't know what, and started shooting" he said.
After firing three shots at Ricker, Ponder said the woman walked calmly to the front of the drug store. She fired one shot through the woman's face and it struck Miss Rector in the mouth.
The former beauty queen slumped to the floor and died before police could assist her.
The sheriff said Mrs. Ricker, sobbing hysterically, surrendered to two policemen who witnessed the shootings but who said it happened too fast for them to stop her.
Ponder said Mrs. Ricker, who had just been to church, was carrying the .38 caliber pistol in her purse and had been "apparently looking for" her husband and Miss Rector.Ricker was taken in to Asheville Hospital, where his condition was stated as fair.

Former Asheville Beauty Queen Is Shot On StreetMarshall, N.C. - A burst of gunfire on the main street of Marshall yesterday afternoon cut down two people killing a former Asheville beauty queen and seriously wounding the father of two children.
Weekend crowds saw pretty 19-year-old Lorraine Rector slump to the floor of the Marshall Pharmacy and die after being shot in the mouth with a .38 caliber pistol. A few minutes earlier, Albert Ricker, 38, was shot three times as he sat in his car, parked half a block from the drugstore.
Police are holding 30-year-old Mrs. Albert Ricker, wife of the injured man, on a charge of murder, Madison County Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said the Rickers had been legally separated two years.

Wife On Trial For Killing RivalMrs. Ricker Pleads "Insanity" As Reason For Shooting GirlMarshall, N.C. - A "very religious" mother pleaded not guilty by reason of temporary insanity yesterday in the fatal shouting of a former beauty queen who had become the sweetheart of her estranged husband.Mrs. Daisy Ramsey Ricker entered the plea at her arraignment on first degree murder charges here yesterday after a Madison county grand jury had returned an indictment against her.
Judge Allen H. Gwyn of Greensboro, N.C. turned down a prosecution mention that the jury be selected from outside the county because of "widespread interest" in the case.
Ruled Against The State
After hearing about 30 minutes of argument on the point, Gwyn ruled against the state and ordered a venire of 125 persons to appear for jury duty today when Mrs. Ricker's trial is expected to begin.
The 30-year-old woman is accused of firing a pistol shot that struck Miss Lorraine Rector, 19-year-old queen of the 1948 Asheville Tobacco Festival in the mouth as she walked out of a drug store here on a quiet Sunday afternoon last Oct. 12.
Husband WoundedMrs. Ricker's 38-year-old husband, Albert, was wounded as he sat in his car a short distance away waiting for Miss Rector to return with a pint of ice cream.
He had been dating Miss Rector for about a year.

Wife Shoots Husband And Beauty QueenMarshall, N.C. - A jealous wife wounded her estranged husband with three pistol shots and then killed his beauty queen girlfriend, Sheriff E.Y. Ponder said today.Miss Lorriane Rector, 19, queen of the 1948 Asheville Tobacco Festival, was killed as she walked from a drug store yesterday afternoon. Albert Ricker, 38, was wounded as he sat in his car half a block away waiting for Miss Rector.Mrs. Albert Ricker, 30, mother of Ricker's two sons, surrendered to town officers immediately after the shooting. Sheriff Ponder said the woman, in a "very nervous condition" was held in a jail on a murder charge.
Ponder said he questioned Mrs. Ricker again today but that she declined to make "any statement whatsoever" concerning the shooting. However, the sheriff said, jealousy "apparently was at the bottom of it".

Witnesses Still Being Quizzed In Marshall CaseMarshall, N.C. - The defense offered more witnesses here today in the trial of Mrs. Daisy Ramsey Ricker, charged with murder in the Oct. 12 pistol slaying of 19-year-old Lorraine Rector.Mrs. Ricker, 30-year-old mother of two, took the stand yesterday to tell her story of events leading up to the shooting of Miss Rector. The victim, a former Asheville Tobacco Festival beauty queen, was struck in the mouth by a pistol bullet as she left a Marshall drug store.
The defendant testified she was informed last year that her husband, Albert Ricker, was "having an affair" with Miss Rector. She said she received letters from Detroit saying that Ricker and Miss Rector were together in Michigan at that time.Mrs. Ricker told the court she went to Detroit and confronted her husband who denied having an affair.
One the day of the shooting, Miss Rector "made a face at her", Mrs. Ricker said. Then she "blanked out" and didn't remember shooting anyone. She said her mind was blank until she became aware of events while in a jail cell following the shooting.

Beauty Queen's Slayer Turned Loose By JuryMarshall, N.C. - A frail mother fainted in a bedlam of cheers when a jury acquitted her in the pistol slaying of her estranged huband's sweetheart, a teen aged beauty queen.Mrs. Daisy Ricker, 30, charged with first-degree murder, collapsed late yesterday when the jury found her innocent in the Main Street shooting of the 1948 Asheville Tobacco Festival.
A throng of spectators, mostly housewives, cheered and milled about the tiny courtroom, preventing unconscious woman from being removed until nearly 20 minutes later.
The jury of three women and nine men found Mrs. Ricker "innocent by reason of temporary insanity" after deliberating an hour and 10 minutes.
Judge H. Allen Gwyn had ordered the spectators jammed into the courtroom to "make no demonstration", but a wave of cheering swept the room when the verdict was announced.
Dr. W.A. Sams, Mrs. Ricker's family physician, finally carried the unconscious woman from the courtroom and placed her under observation at her home.Mrs. Ricker, mother of two children, had fainted once before during the day as her lawyer told the jury Miss Rector had publicly taunted the slender, brown-haired woman about a relationship with Albert Ricker, 38.
After a recess of an hour and 15 minutes Mrs. Ricker was returned, but had to be removed again while defense attorney James H. Baley, Jr. summed up his case.
He reviewed claims that Miss Rector and Ricker had shared a "one-bed" apartment before the accused woman wounded her husband with three shots and then killed the blonde beauty at a drug store last Oct. 12.
"How many women could have stood it as long as she did?" Baley asked.
Many women in the room wiped their eyes with handkerchiefs. Beads of sweat appeared on Mrs. Ricker's forehead.
Prosecutor George M. Prichard charged that Mrs. Ricker "knew what she was doing" and "allowed emotionalism to take the place of law."

Albert Matthew Ricker had a son named Jerry Alan Ricker in 1943. He married a second time to a woman named Christine Rice on 9/30/1961 in Greene County, TN.

Albert Ricker died 11/22/1990 and is buried in Bowman-Rector Cemetery, Marshall, Madison County, NC. His second wife, Christine Rice Ricker died 1/21/2003 and is buried at the Cook Farm Cemetery, Madison County, NC.

MARSHALL - Christine Rice Ricker, 72, of Big Laurel Road, passed away
Tuesday, Jan. 21, 2003, at Elderberry Health Care facility. A native and lifelong
resident of Madison County, Mrs. Ricker was a loving wife and mother. She
enjoyed taking care of her family and friends. She also enjoyed gardening and
raising rose bushes. Mrs. Ricker was preceded in death by her parents, James E.
Rice and Eliza Cook Rice; husband, Albert Ricker, who passed away in 1990;
and several brothers and sisters. She is survived by her son, John Kenneth
Ricker and his wife, Tereasa, of the home; stepsons, Jerry Alan Ricker of
Hendersonville and William "Bill" Ricker and his wife, Judy, of Mars Hill;
brothers, Everett Rice and Kenneth Rice, both of Marshall; five
stepgrandchildren and three step-great- grandchildren. The funeral services will
be conducted at 2 p.m. Saturday in the chapel of Madison Funeral Home. The
Revs. Raymond Cantrell and Harry Culbertson Jr. will officiate. Interment will
follow in Cook Farm Cemetery. The family will receive friends from 6 to 8 p.m.
Friday at the funeral home.
Services are being provided by: Madison Funeral Home

If you can fill in any blanks, have further information, clarification or corrections, please contact me at Mom25dogs@gmail.com

Monday, October 17, 2016

Our grandniece and grandnephew were taken to a little farm Fall event by their grandparents this weekend. They shared some pictures and I made these digital scrapbook pages using them.

Here is Savannah's Fall digital scrapbook page.

Here is Will's Fall digital scrapbook page.

Then, on the other side of the country, our niece, Jenny's children got a wonderful group photo for the Fall. They live in California so they don't experience the same season change but she captured it with the golds and greens in the photo with Brooke, Brett and Ryan. So here is the Fall digital scrapbook page I made with them.

Here is the page I did of another grandniece, Reagan. She is so cute and this picture really caught her expression. Here is the Fall digital scrapbook page I made of her.

This grandnephew went to pumpkin patch this weekend. Here is the digital scrapbook page I made of him at the pumpkin patch.

Sunday, October 16, 2016

The land of present-day Greenville was once the hunting ground of the Cherokee which was forbidden to colonists.

There were various treaties where the Cherokee ceded their hunting lands to the white settlers. When they released the upstate of SC, settlers began pouring into these lands. Most were the highly independent Scotch-Irish. This term is an American term that refers to Ulster Scots, an ethnic group in Ulster, Ireland, who trace their roots to settlers from Scotland. Scotch-Irish Americans, who first migrated to America in large numbers in the 18th and 19th centuries, were mostly descendants of Protestant Presbyterians who were dissenters that separated from the Church of England. Over 200,000 Scotch-Irish migrated to the Americas between 1717 and 1775. As a late arriving group, they found land in the coastal areas of the colonies was either already owned or too expensive, so they migrated to the more mountainous interior where land was cheap. They lived on the first frontier of America. Early frontier life was extremely challenging, but poverty and hardship were familiar to them. The term "hillbilly" has often been applied to their descendants in the mountains, carrying connotations of poverty, backwardness and violence; this word has its origins in Scotland and Ireland. These were fierce people who took care of their own business. They faced wild animals, poverty, Indian attacks. Being so far removed from the central and low country of SC made the South Carolina upstate a whole other world.

South Carolina has the flat coastal area called the lowlands or coastal plain. The middle portion of the state is flat, until you go north of Columbia, is the midlands. As you get into the upstate corner you begin to have rolling hills. The closer you get to the NC line, the more mountains you see. The rolling, hilly area of the upstate is called the Piedmont. Close to the the North Carolina line, it becomes the foothills to the Appalachian Mountains. Northern Spartanburg and Greenville counties, Pickens county, and Oconee county and a portion of Anderson county have mountains and dense forest areas and large lakes. It's this area that you have an area called "Dark Corners".

The first known record of the name was when it was used in a speech by Governor Perry at Glassy Mountain Baptist Church in 1832. But it was probably used before then.

Hogback Mountain

Glassy Mountain

Table Rock

Dark Corner became a hot bed because of the independence of it's people and it's inaccessibility. The mountain people of the area did not support the Articles of Secession. And during the War of Northern Aggression, there was some very complicated issues. Some of the men who didn't own slaves, didn't think the war belonged to them. They didn't want to serve and had to be conscripted. There may have been as many as 500 men who resisted and were called "skulkers". In this area, it was easy for men to hide from conscription patrols. As the War lasted longer than they imagined, many families wrote to their men in the Confederate Army telling them how they were suffering. Without men, the families were having a hard time raising food and were starving. Mothers, wives and sisters, left to run farms without fathers, husbands, brothers or uncles, ran the risk of ruin or being overrun by Union forces. So many men deserted to go home and take care of their families. Many soldiers simply felt their duty had been done, and went home. Some would go home, put the crops in and return. Some didn't return. For those deserters who streamed back home, they hid out in the woods and mountains. As it began to look, more and more, like the South was losing the War, many Confederate soldiers deserted to go to the other side and join the Union Army. They hoped this would save them problems after the War was over and the Union won.

After the War, the Reconstruction period put additional burdens on the people who lived in poverty. Between the War and the Reconstruction Era, people suffered and poverty was grinding. One way they found of making money was making moonshine. It was a matter of economics. Let's say you raised a bushel of corn. You could sell the bushel of corn for .50 cents/bushel or you could use that bushel of corn to make moonshine and make $12.50 from the same bushel. Moonshine not only made more money but was easier to transport. Which would you do? Many residents of Dark Corner were willing to run stills and and moonshine for the money, plain and simple. Of course, getting caught cost them jail time. Even those residents who didn't make or run 'shine understood why their neighbors did or were scared of those who did. During the 1920's, there was Prohibition. Those who made liquor, could make even more money. During the 1930's, the Great Depression, made moonshine earnings a necessity. Corn was raised on the river bottoms, ground into meal, made into mash and alcohol was distilled. Wagons (later automobiles) took their loads into Greenville and Spartanburg where it was sold to buy food and supplies. People who lived in this area were concentrated along places like Table Rock, Beaver Dam Creek, Devils Fork (under water at present day Lake Jocassee), Hogback and Glassy Mountains, Caesers Head (Saluda Mountain, SC).

There were few roads in and out of the area and it was densely forested. President George Washington was the first to appoint High Sheriffs to collect taxes on homemade liquor. These officers were called Revenuers. The first sheriff dispatched to Dark Corner was shot and killed. The people of Dark Corner felt such laws were unreasonable. They used their land and their labor to grow crops and then they processed the crops in a way that made it easier to transport and would make more money. So they didn't think it was the government's business. Government agents, especially during the prohibition, were looked on as enemies. And strangers could be the hated "Revenuers", so strangers took their life in their hands entering the Dark Corner area. From the 1930s up through the 1950s, moonshining was so common you could spot a still on every creek and stream in the mostly wooded northern part of Greenville County. There are probably 100's of abandoned stills in the woods in the Dark Corner area to this day.

Due to illicit activities, secretiveness, and limited roadways in and out, modernization of the area came slow to Dark Corners.

One well known outlaw in Pickens county, SC was Lewis Redmond. Sometimes referred to as the Prince of Dark Corners. He was a bootlegger but he was seen as a Robin Hood. Redmond ran a bootleg whiskey operation that ranged through three states. Raised as a farmer in Oconee County, Mr. Redmond brewed moonshine at night and turned to moonshining more after his parents died and he became the guardian and provider for his sisters. An attempted arrest by a federal marshal ended when Redmon murdered the Federal agent. The marshal did not have an arrest warrant and in the attempt to arrest Mr. Redmond the marshal was killed.

In the next few years Redmond's cabin hideout was raided three times. On the first raid, one of his mountain friends had warned him, and he slipped out of the cabin and down the river in his canoe 20 minutes before the law arrived. The second raid caught him, in his cabin, but he managed to get away, through a small escape hole in the rear of the cabin as the officers came in the front door. The third raid turned a little more intense when Redmond, being caught in the cabin without a means of escape, came out with a gun and attempted to run. He was shot six times for his efforts, arrested and taken to jail where he, some how, managed to survive. After the arrest he was held in the Bryson City jail, where his wife managed to slip him a pistol concealed under a pillow. The officers somehow found out about the pistol and confronted Redmond with the advice that if he didn't give up the pistol he would gladly be killed saving them the trouble of a trial. After surrendering the pistol, he was moved to Asheville, NC and then on to Greenville, South Carolina, for trial.

He only served 22 months of the sentence before President Chester A. Arthur pardoned him in 1883.

Mr. Redmond returned to Walhalla and went to work for a government distillery that produced "Redmond's Hand Mash" and his picture was on the whiskey's barrels. He lived a quiet life and died in 1906 in Seneca.

These men had a reason for why they manufactured moonshine... money. But we mustn't forget that what they were doing was illegal and there were reasons why it was illegal. People could die from unregulated rot-gut moonshine. With no regulations concerning sanitation, and raw materials, you didn't know what you were getting. Just like illegal drugs manufactured today, people can die from what they buy on the streets. They don't know what's really in the cocaine or meth they buy. And alcohol is a drug that costs in heart ache and broken families just like addictive illegal drugs. People died doing these illegal deals and the it's how gangsters and mobsters got started. So, we should be careful about oversimplifying the issue or making heroes out of those who did this.